Bullets, Knives and Outlaws
by Lord of the Saiyans
Summary: Inspired by certain fan-art, a re-imagining of the series through the lens of the old west. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke begin their journey in Hidden Leaf Town, but what has changed and what has stayed the same? An attempt to bring life to an older topic, while taking some creative license with the world itself. Fair amount of world-building ahead.


Kakashi didn't much like the sun, which was unfortunate, because it was a constant companion in his line of work. Shaded carefully by a wide-brimmed hat, and with his face wrapped in a green-shaded bandanna, he looked carefully at the three kids he'd been given to work with this time. He gave a soft sigh, his bandanna wound around his eye and mouth, disguising the motion for him without much trouble. The four of them were standing on one of the wagon trails leading from town, the road was dusty and empty, shimmering with the haze of the noon-day sun. In the distance, Leaf Town could be seen faintly. A collection of buildings, some ramshackle, and some from better days, clustered around a proud mountain. A normal person wouldn't have been able to pick out the carved faces in the mountain, four in total. Each one, a former boss of the town. The current title was ''mayor'' but it hadn't always been that way.

Kakashi wasn't a normal man, and he'd been up close to the mountain enough times to know just where each of the faces were, and to feel the familiar stab of grief and shame at the blind stare one amongst their number in particular.

He sighed again. It was a common habit for him. Most people couldn't really tell when he was doing it, and he didn't have much in his life to be happy about in any case. The palms of his hands were itchy, and that meant he was due in the old graveyard. Instead, he was stuck here with three brats.

Well, that just meant he'd have more to apologise for later.

He looked at the kids again. So small they were, clustered together uncertainly, they'd probably never been out of town. He had to resist the urge to sigh again, had he really been this small once upon a time?

"So, let's get started." He said out-loud. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I decided to take you out of the town for this little introduction. It's because I didn't want to have to get rid of the bodies later in case you don't live up to my expectations." He gave them a moment to take it in. "You've chosen a dangerous line of work, but I'm not here to tell you all that. Let's get to the introductions. Start with names, and your goal. What is it that you want to do?"

There was, he would admit later, no real surprise when it came time for introductions. He'd be bad at his job if he didn't know ahead of time just what each of them would say. The first to speak up was the Uchiha boy, who held himself just a little bit separately from the rest of the group. Kakashi watched him with some interest, alternately hoping and dreading that there would be a tiny spark of another Uchiha in him. It was the first time he'd interacted up close with a member of that family for a long time now, but his hopes were misplaced. Of Obito, there was little in Sasuke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." He said levelly. His hands were held carefully at his side, but Kakashi spotted the micro-muscule movements that indicated a desire his holstered gun at the thought of what he was saying. Not really surprising, he supposed. "My goal is to hunt down a certain rogue...someone who did quite a lot of harm to me and those who share my name. I'm going to kill him too. To make him pay."

 _Itachi._ Kakashi mused to himself. He'd expected this, of course. He'd known the backgrounds of each one of his new deputies since the moment they'd been forwarded to him. It was no surprise, but the suppressed venom in Sasuke's voice banished any thought of the happy go-lucky Obito. The two were nothing alike.

 _He's more like me._ Kakashi decided, and felt a sting of guilt for his own wasted early years.

Kakashi didn't remember that much of Itachi, to tell the truth. They'd worked together on a few missions, but nothing really memorable. He was always polite and efficient, and the older outlaw would never really have considered that Itachi might one day go rogue. Sometimes, he wondered if he had, would things have been different?

 _Just another regret to add to the pile. No use looking over it now, plenty of time for reflection later._

The next to speak was Naruto. Boisterous, he was, and full of energy even as he declared his intention to become the next boss of the town. Though, whether he meant sheriff or mayor, he never quite seemed to settle down on. As far as he was concerned, he wanted to be both. Kakashi idly toyed with pointing out the positions were mutually exclusive, you couldn't hold both. Ultimately though, he decided against it.

Plenty of time to crush dreams later. First he had to determine if the team would go forward at all. The next one to speak was the Sakura girl, but he tuned her out for the most part. She was the most normal of his new deputies, and he felt he had a firm grasp on her wants and desires already. What little he caught of her sentence confirmed that. When she was done, he stood back up again.

"Just to make it fair, I'll introduce myself as well. Kakashi Hatake, first class outlaw." He left it to them to figure out if ''first class'' was really a rank. "My job is to decide if the three of you are worthy of progression towards joining the ranks of the Leaf-Town forces. So far, I'm really not impressed. Look around you, what do you see?"

The three took a moment to examine their surroundings, Sasuke in particular seemed to scan the horizon, seeing the miles upon miles of absolute nothing. The hot sun beat down on the dry, cracked earth. Here and there, a defiant cactus poked through, determined not to end up like the dry corpses of trees that could be spotted every so often. Reaching for the sky like bony digits.

"There's….nothing here?" Sakura said slowly.

Sasuke shot her a look of annoyance, probably assuming that she was wrong. Kakashi nodded.

"Correct. The three of you have been brought here for me to test you. If you look around, you'll see that there's absolutely nothing to hide you or allow you to escape. Should you fail the test, I'll simply leave you here. Good luck getting back to town by yourself. The only chance you have is to win, then. Though, I should warn you, I've never let a team pass before."

He saw the revelation hit them. Sakura's dismayed look. Sasuke's slight tightening of expression. Determination. Naruto who seemed to absorb it without comment.

"What's the test?" Sasuke said, Kakashi had suspected he'd be the first to speak.

"It's simplicity itself. Al you need to do is land a hit on me before I bring you all down." Kakashi grinned under his bandanna. "That's easy to say, but you're probably not going to succeed. As a warning, fight like your life depends on it, because it does."

Sasuke struck first, his hand flying to his side, ripping the pistol free from his side, and raising it without hesitation. Kakashi noted it all with approval, the gun in his hand gleamed silver. New. Academy standard issue, two-shot addition. Sasuke wore a bandoleer of cartridges wrapped around his body from shoulder to side. Sakura gasped, and even Naruto gaped at the speed and lethality of the attack. His finger pressed down, and one of the rounds already loaded in the gun erupted from the muzzle.

For a split second, the bullet seemed to hang frozen in mid air. It was a fat cartridge, emblazoned with the emblems of the Leaf and the Uchiha. Then, it detonated, turning into a storm of roaring flames which screamed through the area where Kakashi was standing.

 _Had_ been standing.

It was empty now, and had become so the moment the Uchiha had gone for his gun. Sasuke hesitated, and that was his undoing, for in a split second, Kakashi was behind him.

"Not bad. Good quick-draw. You'll need to do better, though."

Sasuke twisted, his left hand drawing a lethal-looking serrated blade that blazed with his Chakra. He sliced for Kakashi's side, but the older outlaw caught the blade with his own – a longer, more refined weapon, though notched from frequent use. There was a moment of clash, but the victor was never in doubt. Sasuke dropped low, and Kakashi's blade swept high, cutting inches from his hair, the Uchiha pushed back, flipping into the air himself as he brought his gun to bear.

 _One more shot._

Kakashi dodged left, this time, Sasuke unleashed a fireball shot. The cartridge exploding into lethal fire as it hammered towards him. In response, Kakashi shifted the nature of his Chakra, letting his blade be enveloped by the essence of water.

Then, he met the attack. The fireball flashed, turning into a blast of hot steam which streamed across his vision. Sasuke landed, but before he could strike again, a round erupted from the steam-cloud, slamming into the ground at his feet. It changed, churning quickly into mud, and Sasuke began to sink with a cry of surprise.

It had only been a few seconds since the start of the fight.

 _One shot used. Five left._ Kakashi counted down his ammunition with long practice. The handle of his weapon in one hand, and his blade in the other. he'd fought the wars like this, and it was as easy as breathing to him now. Should he have been worried that it was actually taking effort to remind himself not to go lethal on these brats? For years, he'd fine-tuned his body to turn himself into a killer, and now he was having to focus on not doing any real damage.

"Sasuke!"

Sakura moved, the sight of her crush treading the sucking mud enough to break the shock of the sudden violence. She rushed for him, but Kakashi interspersed himself between them. His blade was sheathed again at his waist, and he wagged one finger mockingly.

"Not so fast, Sakura. If you want to get to him, you're going to need to go through me."

"Stop picking on Sakura!"

Naruto came at him from the side, a furious flurry of fists and kicks with more energy than training behind them. Kakashi side-stepped, sweeping one arm to the side to deflect Naruto's latest blow. The blond-haired child (Ignore how much he looked like that same stone face, that was the past, and couldn't be brought back.) overbalanced to the side, and Kakachi hammered a fist into his gut. He groaned in pain as the blow carried him back, leaving him sprawling amongst the dust.

Sakura attacked. He noted with approval that she used his distraction to her advantage, trying to come at him from his blind side. For a fresh graduate, her speed and power were respectable, even if not quite up to the standards of Sasuke's. At the same time, what she lacked in training, she made up for with caution. She didn't fight like Naruto, wildly and without planning, and she didn't have Sasuke's self-confidence, which actually worked to her advantage. As they traded blows (Well, mostly him parrying and blocking while Sakura tired herself out.) It was much harder for him to trick her into over-stepping her guard like he had with Naruto.

Potential. But that alone wasn't enough to make it in his squad. The question was could she step further beyond her self and fight as part of a group? Could any of them?

He was going to find out.

With a surge of speed, he caught her fist, twisting to the side. She yelped, and went down even as his free hand tore his blade once more from its sheath. Metal gleamed in the sun, and Sakura's eyes went wide.

An explosion tore into the ground where he'd been standing, but he'd already flipped into the air to avoid it. Sakura sprawled to the ground, but he ignored. Eyes scanning for the target.

Naruto. His hands were grasping the handle of his standard Academy two-round shooter. His was less pristine than Sasuke's, and it looked a lot more worn. But it was still good. He'd fired one shot, which meant he had one more ready to go. The attack he'd used had been quite destructive, but not very controlled.

More likely an overcharged cartridge than a proper Jutsu-formula, then.

Naruto fired again, but Kakashi was ready. He still had five shots in his revolver, and with care, he released two of them now. One flew straight, impacting Naruto's own slug, and exploding into a cloud of steam and smoke. Naruto's cartridge detonated, creating a fireball which swept across the plain.

Kakashi's second shot exited the cloud a second later, Naruto tore away, but he was still slow, and when the bullet became the centre of an expanding electrical cloud, he had no way to escape. He gave a strangled cry as his muscular control was scrambled, sprawling to the ground in a twitching mess. Kakashi landed beside him, and gestured with the point of his blade.

"You're dead, Naruto. Sasuke, you're captured."

Sakura came at him, her academy knife glinting in the sun, but she was fighting with desperation now, and she lacked the tactical awareness which had impressed him before. He swept her feet out from under her, and when she could see again, a gun was pointed to her head.

"What can I say?" Kakashi murmured. He swept his eyes across the three. Sakura frozen in shock. Sasuke buried to the neck, and Naruto still barely able to move.

"Without doubt, each one of you had absolutely failed."

He holstered his gun, and sheathed his blade.

"Maybe you should try again next year?"

* * *

"This sucks."

It was Naruto who voiced the general feeling of the dispirited team, some hours later. Contrary to his original warning, Kakashi had brought them back to the town with him, but after that, he'd split, and none of them seriously expected to see him again.

"I can't believe he just tossed us out like that!" Naruto went on, scowling into the woodwork bench upon which was set their food. "And after everything we did too! I thought it was pretty good, but I guess that just wasn't good enough."

Sakura was silent. Privately, she agreed with Naruto. The aching feeling of, well, of failure hadn't left her since the end of the exam. She felt empty and drained, exhausted, but she didn't want to be alone just now. All the years in the Academy wasted in a single day, just because some teacher was in a bad mood? She knew that she should probably head home, her parents would be worried about her if she stayed away much longer. They'd known she was taking the exam today. Before she left this morning, they'd even taken the time out to tell her that they believed in her, and knew she'd do well, like she always did in class.

The thought of coming back, and seeing their expectant faces, of having to explain to them that she'd failed, and would have to sit back another year. The thought of the disappointment that they'd feel was a knife in the gut.

She looked towards Sasuke. He'd said very little since the end of the exam. Sakura wondered what he was thinking, but trying to read him was virtually impossible. He stood stock still, standing by the bench where the food had been laid. It had been Naruto's idea, a way to try to salvage some of their wounded pride. She suspected it wasn't working.

Now, Sakura had more than a little bit of a crush on Sasuke, but right now, that wasn't forefront in her mind. She could see that the Uchiha boy had not touched his food, nor had he said much, and she wondered how much he was suffering. After what he had said during the introduction, what he had declared, it seemed horrible to her that he was being held back with the rest of them. Naruto and herself, yes, she could deal with that.

But Sasuke too?

It wasn't right. It wasn't _fair._

Hah. But what was fair? The first lesson that had been drilled into them in the Academy was that there was no such thing. If she closed her eyes, she could almost still hear Iruka saying to them.

'' _Fairness has no place in a world of outlaws. If you make it to the end of your training, your job is to fight and to win. Be faster, be stronger, but if that doesn't work, be smarter. The point is to complete your mission, no matter how fair or otherwise it might be.''_

Just because it wasn't fair didn't mean it wasn't happening. It was hard enough for her to believe herself, she didn't even want to think about how her teammates were taking it.

"Sasuke..?" She dared. "Are you…?" She trailed off. How did you finish that sentence? ''Are you all right?'' All right that so many years of training had come down to a failure? Learning to survive, learning the history of Leaf Town, learning how to fight with the blade, and how to draw a gun. The long, long hours spent learning how to create and charge Jutsu Cartridges for use in weapons. The days spent honing their bodies. How did ''All right'' mean anything in the face of that?

"I'm fine, Sakura." Sasuke said bluntly. "I don't need you watching over me."

Her eyes moved to the counter, and she mumbled an apology. Sasuke sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. This is just… I didn't expect this."

"I don't think any of us did." Sakura ventured, after a moment of silence.

The door opened, the bell jingled to announce another customer. None of the three looked around, each one too caught up in their own woes. That was, until a familiar figure sat down at the bench by their side.

"Heard you three had a rough day, huh? I guess it can't be helped. It was just your luck drawing Kakashi as a teacher. They call him ''Lone Gun'' Kakashi, did you know? The guy has never passed a team. Always works alone."

"What, seriously?" Naruto half-shouted. "We never stood a chance!"

"That's about how it would seem."

Sakura looked towards the figure that had sat down, frowning slightly as though in thought.

"Mizuke? I'm sorry, I didn't expect to see you here. You're not usually out this late."

"Oh, and you are?" Their teacher shot a smile at her. "I didn't know you were so popular with the boys, Sakura to be quite so well aware of our little town after dark."

Sakura flushed and looked towards the bench, mumbling something incomprehensible. Mizuke gave a laugh, and patted her on the back.

"I'm only teasing you. I came to check in on each of you. As soon as I saw the fact that you'd drawn Kakashi, I thought there might be trouble. Iruka thought otherwise, but, well, I know the guy's history. There's outlaws, and then there's _outlaws_ if you get my meaning? It may be better that you're not getting trained by him."

Naruto scowled, looking off into the distance as though trapped in his own little world. At last, he glanced back towards Mizuke.

"How can you say that?" He demanded. "We worked hard for this! We shouldn't have to stop just because some no-good teacher decides he's had a bad day! It's not fair!"

"Fair?" Mizuke said. "I don't know about fair." For a moment, his smile faded, and he seemed only blank, but only for a moment. "But that's why I came. I figured that the three of you could use some help. Since Kakashi has never passed a team and all… did you know there are other ways to get a pass? Secret ways?"

"You're saying we still have a chance?!"

Sakura winced.

"Naruto, please, keep it down… "

"Eh, sorry. But Mizuke, you're saying that there are other ways to pass besides the teacher?"

"Yeah." The instructor said, his face becoming serious for a moment. "I probably shouldn't tell you this. But you've all worked so hard, and it'd be a real shame for it to come to nothing. I've watched you all grow, and I'd be a bad teacher if I just sat back and did nothing. Before I go on, though, are each of you sure that this is what you want? It'll take all of you, and it'll be dangerous. There's a chance you may die."

"I don't care about that." Naruto said, without even leaving time to process the words. "I'm all for it! Whatever it is, I can do it!"

Sakura, for her part, was silent. There was a long moment, as she contemplated the words of their teacher deeply. She knew that Naruto had probably volunteered before he even considered what this might mean, but that didn't mean she had to as well. She imagined what would happen if she was hurt or killed, and what it would mean to her parents who'd waved her off so cheerfully. Could she really do that to them?

On the other hand, wasn't this what she'd been training for anyway? Wasn't it drilled into all of them from the start of their training that they had to be ready to die? She hesitated, not quite wanting to commit, even as she knew that logically, she was letting herself into nothing more than she already had.

Sasuke spoke next.

"I'll do it."

Three simple words, but there was feeling to them, and she remembered what he had said earlier at their meeting with Kakashi as well… how much this meant to him, and to Naruto as well.

And her? Didn't it matter to her?

Slowly, she made up her mind, nodding firmly.

"I'll do it too."

"Good." Mizuke smiled. "You don't know how much I wanted to hear the three of you say that..."


End file.
